


Here's to Tony

by mrshopkirk



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Cinematic Universe RPF
Genre: Emotional Hurt, Funeral, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Other, POV Bucky Barnes, POV Steve Rogers, Sadness, Tears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 13:35:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22910452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrshopkirk/pseuds/mrshopkirk
Summary: Steve speeches at Tony funeral, Bucky reminisces about the past they shared.
Kudos: 2





	Here's to Tony

**Author's Note:**

> First posted on Tumblr.

It should have been a gloomy day but mother nature had other plans. The sun was shining and the small venue started to fill up with the handful of people Tony called his real family and friends. It was a beautiful mix to see. All the Avengers made it, the old as well as the new recruits. It’s hard to believe Wanda is a senior agent already. The growing belly looking good on her. Barton’s family is here too, his son and daughter already old enough to bring their girlfriend and boyfriend. He seems relaxed. Retiring was a good decision after all. Nat shows up fashionably late, wearing a beautiful smile and a black dress that hugged all the right curves of her body. It’s Tony’s last get-together, she argued, he would have appreciated the effort and gave Pepper a wink before pulling her in a tight hug. “Tony deserves a smile, guys. The man was all about fun and jokes!” Those who know her well can see through the façade. She was mourning just as much as the rest of us. Happy didn’t even look up during the entire service. Scott brought Cassie with him. She doesn’t take after her dad though they’re definitely equally funny. I hadn’t seen Sam in a while. “Can’t move my seat up now, tin man,” he said as he took a seat in front of me. I gave him a playful shove, “Good to see you too, bird brain.”

I missed most of the service looking at people and reminiscing about the past we shared.

Steve took the stand.

“We are all here today to say goodbye to Tony, a great friend, a loving husband and one wicked dad.” He smiled at Pepper and her daughter.

_It’s been years since I started living in the tower. It had taken a while before Steve and Nat convinced me to come live there, assuring me Tony was okay with it._ _ To say he was happy with his new housemate was a huge overstatement but he let me live under his roof anyway. That’s when I learned Tony Stark had a big heart and was trying his best at forgiving me even if I will never forgive myself._

“He was a man that had so much but in the end, was content with so little. You could have taken away his money, company, cars, his precious suits even those ridiculously expensive sunglasses. Even his dignity if it meant protecting and saving the ones that mattered most to him. I, and everyone in this room, was lucky enough to matter to this man.”

_He and Steve had settled their differences. The ultimate show of respect and love came when we went to visit Pepper and Tony in the hospital after their daughter was born. Steve loves kids, always has and he totally went overboard with the flowers, a bunch of balloons, a card he drew himself and at least three gifts one of which was an enormous fluffy pink bunny. It hardly fit through the door. “Come on in guys. Here she is, Cap. Here is the most beautiful girl you will ever lay your eyes on, Sarah Maria Stark.” That’s when I learned Tony Stark could accomplish the seemingly impossible task of shutting up Steve Rogers. You name your firstborn after his mother._

“I remember meeting Tony and I’m sorry to say I wasn’t overly impressed. I compared him to his dad and that didn’t do him justice. It’s a situation he faced over and over in his life, being compared to his dad and not as an individual. He was a genius himself. Not just the son of one.”

_Looking at Tony hold his baby girl lovingly in his arms, never failed to warm my heart. The man deserved happiness. “Barnes, I need you to listen to me very carefully. You see this girl? This girl is the most important thing in my life. No-one or nothing can take her away from me.” He looked me straight in the eye. “You, _you_ will protect her at any cost, you hear me. You _owe_ me." I knew what he was getting at and nodded. And then he placed her in my arms. He let me hold his newborn in the metal arm that killed his mother. “You also owe me diaper changes, midnight feedings, babysitting and carol singing." It was meant as a joke but he actually let me do all those things and I loved it. __That’s when I learned Tony Stark trusted me._

Sharon sat next to me and started crying so I handed her my handkerchief. She mumbled a thank you and I put my arm around her shoulder. I’m glad she and Steve made it in the end though it hadn’t been easy. Being Peggy’s niece their relationship has been frowned upon by many but it felt right to them.

_I was surprised to receive an invitation to Tony and Pepper’s wedding. Pepper wanted to dance with every Avenger, including Nat, Wanda and Sharon. When she came up to me I was nervous as hell. It had been so long since I danced with a woman and now all eyes were on me. I felt so out of place, so out of time. But a forties song started playing and I swayed and swayed to the rhythm of the music with Pepper in her beautiful white dress. _ _That’s when I learned Tony Stark looked out for me._

“Tony and I didn’t always agree but I respected him and valued his opinion. The media often wonders how Stark Industries has stayed one of the leading technology companies in the world. It’s because they have the most capable employees. Because Tony pushed people, challenged them to become better versions of themselves. He made you work harder, made you reach your full potential so the world can see what you’re truly made of. He pushed me and challenged me and by doing so he made me become a better man.”

_Sometimes I helped Tony in his lab, lifting some new piece of tech he didn’t trust Dummy with. The glass box Pepper got him mesmerized me every time, how he could ever design that. Pepper gave it to me a few days ago. It now sits in my room, his first arc reactor and ‘proof that Tony Stark has a heart’. It sort of matches the wooden board I found one morning in front of my bedroom door. My blown off arm unceremoniously nailed to it and across it scribbled with a black sharpie ‘proof that Bucky Barnes lends a hand’._ _ That’s when I learned that Tony Stark has the best sense of humor._

Looking around the small room I noticed the colors of the flowers were red and yellow referring to his precious suits. That was a nice touch of Maria. She sure has eye for detail. Everyone was wearing a black suit or dress or at least something grey. Sarah hadn’t dressed up for the occasion or maybe she had. She was wearing blue jeans, white sneakers and her dad’s Black Sabbath t-shirt. Tony definitely would have approved of her outfit.

_I don’t know if Tony knew he was running out of time. One of our last conversations was about Sarah. “Barnes, I need you to promise me something. You will outlive Pepper and I being a super soldier and all. I know Steve will look after of Sarah, it’s in his nature after all, but he has Sharon too.” I knew what he was getting at. “Don’t worry, Tony, I promise there will be no-one more important than Sarah in my life. I will always be here for her.” He nodded his head and went his way. That’s when I learned Tony Stark believed in me._

“There was no-one that could intimidate Tony. Expect maybe his wife Pepper.” Everyone in the room chuckled. It was the truth after all. “He also never shut up. Expect when his daughter Sarah was speaking. She had him wrapped around her finger. Tony confided in me she is a force to be reckoned with.” Steve smiled at Sarah, tears brimming her eyes, a smile gracing her face. “There is no doubt in my mind that Sarah will continue to change the world like her dad before her and his father before him. She will continue the legacy and contribute in her own way. The world wouldn’t be the same without a Stark. It _needs_ a Stark.” He emphasized that word, pouring every ounce of respect for Tony in it. “We just have to consider ourselves lucky Sarah has her mother’s diplomacy.”

_Sometimes Tony, Pepper, Sarah and I have dinner together. We lived in the same building after all._ _One night at dinner little Sarah told us she had to write an essay for school, ‘major turning points in politics in the last century’. “Why don't you let uncle Bucky help you? He knows a thing or two about that.” I almost choked on my food that evening. That’s when I learned Tony Stark would always be a son of a bitch sometimes._

“Buck and I are always reminded of our military past and commemorated for it. But Tony was a soldier too. People forget he was a prisoner of war in Afghanistan. He almost died in captivity and lost a comrade there. He saw his friend Rhodey almost plummet to his death. And yet he still carried on, fighting for a cause he believed in. I very much respected his determination and conviction even at times when we didn’t see eye to eye.”

Steve, Sam and I looked at Rhodey, remembering that very day and what had lead to it. The man was a soldier that knows you chose sides in times of war and deal with the consequences of those decisions. All of us being soldiers know that when the dust settles, dynamics of the world have shifted irreversibly. Rhodey looked up at Steve and nodded. Sam put a hand on his shoulder.

_One night I overheard Sarah ask Tony about her grandparents__.__ “How did they die, daddy?” She was met with silence. “Daddy?” Tony took a deep breath, looked at her and __he __stroked_ _her_ _jaw__, tracing __her__ cheekbone with_ _his thumb__. “They died in a car accident, sweetheart. They were killed on impact.” That’s when I learned Tony Stark was a man worth dying for._

He just gave and gave until he was spent. I was surprised he made it to his 50th birthday. He had lived five lives already but at 59 his body gave up. Pepper found him, not in his lab but outside sitting under his favorite cherry tree. The same tree he had spent so many days under pushing Sarah on her swing and reading to her.

_To say Pepper is devastated is an understatement. For Sarah locking herself in the lab is her way of dealing with the loss of her father. She’s working on everything he didn't finish. But she broke down two days ago realizing he would never see the upgrade of my arm she worked on. Sarah’s a technical genius like Tony. Years ago she said one day she would make my arm ‘amazing’ but she had encountered a problem she didn't know how to fix and didn't tell her dad. Like Tony she is too stubborn to ask for help so she stuffed the arm away in a box. And now she had opened the box only to find it fully working with a note attached. "My darling girl, my princess, don't be too much like me. It's okay to ask for help. This is a wonderful thing you made and I couldn’t be more proud. You are my greatest creation. I love you to infinity and beyond." That was her favorite movie when she was little and she almost peed her pants laughing every time Tony did his impression of Woody and I of Buzz. That’s when I learned Tony Stark’s love for his family was infinite._

“To Tony, the most generous man the world has ever seen.”

It was time to say our final farewells and I walked up to the coffin. I know you learned to trust and forgive me, Tony, and that means the world to me. I don’t know what I was to you but I know what you are to me…

“Goodbye, my friend.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I'd love to hear from you!


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